Queensland told to brace for heavy rain from 'epic low'

QUEENSLAND is being warned to brace for heavy rain in the next few days, but not quite to the level following Cyclone Oswald in 2013.

Retired Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Mike Griffin, who has over 40 years' experience forecasting the weather, says the rare weather conditions are stretching over 2000kms up and down Eastern Australia.

The Bureau of Meteorology has described it as an 'epic low' not seen in many years.

The Higgins Storm Chasers website states that there is an extreme risk of severe storms and possible supercells are forecast to heavily impact the entire South East of the state including central districts on Friday.

Mr Griffin said while it is rare, it has happened before, just with different variations.

He said Central Queenslanders struggling to deal with the very humid conditions are likely to experience very similar rainfall levels as the 349mms in 24 hours in Rockhampton three years ago.

"This is typical of tropical weather experienced normally in Darwin, Townsville and Cairns," he said.

"I've not seen this type of weather in the 16 years I've lived in Central Queensland."

Higgins explains supercell forecast :
This video, released by Higgins Storm Chasers, explains why they have forecast a supercell to hit Queensland on Friday.

Mr Griffin said eastern Australia had experienced pockets of heavy rainfall in the past week, including 100mm in Cairns and flash flooding in Geelong in Victoria.

He said Rockhampton could expect a storm similar to the severe storm that was experienced at Blackwater earlier this week within the next 24 hours.

Mr Griffin said to put things into perspective for Central Queenslanders, he would rate the worst storm conditions as 10 and the least worst at 1, with monsoon rain from Cyclone Oswald in CQ being a 10, Cyclone Marcia being not far being that and the storm expected to hit the region late Friday, early Saturday as being a four or a five.